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What → send → correspondents
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newsletter → sign → inbox
When we met in the Malaysian capital on Monday, Mahi Ramakrishnan, a forced-migration expert trying to stop her country from deporting Myanmar refugees and migrants, was fuming into her coffee.
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Ramakrishnan → meet → coffee
“I told the Malaysian Home Ministry that we are sending them to their deaths, and [the person] was like, ‘Oh no, no, no! Don’t say things like that’.
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person → tell → that
I’m like, ‘What else is there to say?’ ” Ramakrishnan told me.
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Ramakrishnan → ’m → me
Key civil society organisations believed a problem with one of the Myanmar regime’s warships to be used as transport meant plans to ship people back to war – and possible prison or torture – on Tuesday had been delayed.
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plans → believe → Tuesday
Whether a ruse or mistake, the information turned out to be incorrect, and by Tuesday morning the “phase one” group consisting of 1476 people had been bussed to Malaysia’s Lumut Naval Base and loaded onto Myanmar navy vessels, where they waited to push out for the homelands that many of them had risked their lives to flee.
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many → turn → lives
“I was enraged and absolutely heartbroken,” Ramakrishnan told me when I spoke to her again on Wednesday.
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I → enrage → Wednesday
“The prime minister [Anwar Ibrahim] keeps saying the government will discuss for a safe return, but what is he talking about when the [Myanmar] military is continuing its airstrikes?”
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military → say → airstrikes
As if mocking the people and organisations pleading with the Malaysian prime minister not to send the group home, the Myanmar regime chose Monday for an airstrike on a market and a bridge in Rakhine state that may have killed 50 civilians and injured 58 more.
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that → mock → 58
Images shared to Telegram by the Arakan Army, one of the ethnic armies fighting the regime, showed bodies so damaged it was impossible to tell whether they were children or adults, men or women.
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they → share → bodies
More than 100,000 people may have been killed in the Myanmar civil war since a military coup ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
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coup → kill → February
The panicked regime of coup leader Min Aung Hlaing has become increasingly barbaric following territorial losses from late 2023, showing no qualms in sending its Russian- and Chinese-made jets to blow up schools, hospitals and wedding parties.
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regime → become → schools
Still, the politically vulnerable Anwar, playing to Malaysia’s rising anti-migrant sentiment ahead of general elections, announced on September 16 that he had invited Min Aung Hlaing for a state visit.
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he → play → visit
Myanmar watchers and human rights organisations were aghast that democratic and proud Malaysia would, like Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, begin incorporating Myanmar’s “president” into the mainstream despite him showing no signs of bringing his nation to peace.
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him → begin → peace
In exchange for Malaysia’s friendship, Myanmar agreed to take back refugees.
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Myanmar → agree → refugees
The slated number is 5000, but rights organisations fear this is only the thin edge of the wedge.
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this → slat → wedge
Malaysia holds hundreds of thousands of Myanmar migrants, many of whom have fled, on rickety boats, from regime-razed villages, persecution and forced military conscription after the 2021 coup.
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many → hold → coup
Thousands have died at sea.
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Thousands → die → sea
The cohort of Rohingya Muslims alone in Malaysia may total more than 200,000 people, but it is impossible to know the precise breakdown of ethnicities because many migrants – grappling with illiteracy, poverty, health problems and no access to transport – can’t make it to Kuala Lumpur to register with the understaffed and overwhelmed local office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
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migrants → total → Refugees
Registration is supposed to prevent arrests in ICE-like raids, but it does not allow refugees to work legally or send their children to state schools.
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refugees → suppose → schools
Civil society organisations say the Malaysian government and Myanmar regime have refused to supply a list of people being returned, or reveal the criteria used in their selection and whether they are economic migrants or refugees.
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they → say → selection
‘Many people say they are volunteers going back, but as a community leader, I do not believe this.
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I → say → this
I know my people.’James
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I → know → people
And Malaysia’s claim that all in the group are returning voluntarily is dubious, to say the least.
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all → return → least
Christian Chins, the second-largest Myanmar ethnic group in Malaysia behind the Rohingya, with 80,000 migrants, are probably among the number, says James Bawi Thang Bik, the chairman of the Alliance of Chin Refugees.
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Bik → say → Refugees
“People have been arrested in immigration raids … while they’re in a house, on the streets and at workplaces,” he tells me.
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he → arrest → me
“Many people say they are volunteers going back, but as a community leader, I do not believe this.
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I → say → this
I know my people.”
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I → know → people
Ramakrishnan says there may be volunteers among the 5000 cohort, but this must be taken in context.
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this → say → context
“They’re treated like sub-human beings [in Malaysia],” she says.
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she → treat → Malaysia
“The refugees are not allowed to work.
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refugees → allow → ?
They’re doing gig jobs, and they are not being paid because the employers know that they can get away with it.
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they → do → it
“They can’t have access to structured education for their kids, and there’s no access to affordable healthcare …
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They → have → healthcare
There are some people who think ‘I’d rather just go because the situation on the ground is so difficult.’”
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situation → be → ground
Even long before the coup, the Rohingya in particular had been facing well-publicised and extreme persecution at the hands of the Myanmar military (and Rakhine Buddhists).
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Rohingya → face → military
An International Court of Justice decision about whether Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya in 2016 and 2017 is imminent.
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Myanmar → commit → 2016
From her sources, Ramakrishnan does not believe any Rohingya are among the first 1476 being sent home, but she fears they are among the broader 5000 (even though the Myanmar military regime does not recognise them as citizens).
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regime → believe → citizens
The hypocrisy of Malaysia’s full-throated support for the Muslims of Palestine versus the hateful railing against Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar has not been lost on anyone paying attention, she says.
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she → lose → attention
Malaysia’s deputy inspector-general of police in June went as far as to call the Rohingya a “cancer”; never mind that only 89 of them have been convicted of criminal offences in Malaysia since 2024, as reported by The Diplomat.
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89 → go → Diplomat
…and 8 more, not listed.
The Aporia
